Improvement in looms



UNITED STATES PATENT OFFICE;O v

O. O. SMITH, OF SALEM, ASSIGNOR TO A. N. CLARK, OF BOSTON, MASS.

IMPROVEMENT IN LOOMS.

Specification forming part of Letters Patent No. 38,265, dated April 21,1863.

To all whom, t may concern/ Beit known that I, O. O. SMITH, of Salem, inthe county of Essex and State of Massachusetts, have invented certainnew and useful Improvements in Looms for Weaving Fabrics and I do herebydeclare that the following description, taken in connection with theaccompanying drawings, hereinafter referred to, forms a full and exactspecification of the same, wherein I have set forth thenature andprinciples of my said improvements by which my invention may bedistinguished from others of a similar class, together with such partsasIclaim and desire to have secured to me by Letters Patent.

The present invention relates to certain new and useful improvements inlooms, (a part of which is especially adapted to the weaving of elasticfabrics 5) and it consists, first, in a novel arrangement of devices,the purpose of which is to overcome or take up the slack of thewarp-threads, caused by their being raised and lowered in the harness,and thus preserve a uniform tension upon the same, the advantages ot'which are evident and need not be herein specified, second, in apeculiar combination of rollers between which the rubber threads arepassed when weaving elastic fabrics, and by means of which they are heldconstantly to their proper tension and, third, in a new arrangement ofmechanical devices for operating the shuttles, as will be hereinaftermore particularly described. p

In the accompanying drawings my improvements in looms are represented,and of which Figure l is a side elevation of the same; Fig. 2, a centrallongitudinal vertical section Figs. 3, 4, 5, and 6 are detail views,respectively, of those parts of the looms in which my improvements aremade.

As the general operation of the loom is the same as is ordinary and wellknown to all eX- perienced in loom machinery, and as my improvements arelimited to particular parts of the loom, I shall therefore confine mydescription mainly to those parts. e

c c in the accompanying drawings represent the frame-work of the loom; bb, the harness, which is raised and lowered in the usual manner; c c,the shuttle-frame, d d, the feedrollers for the warp-threads ff, andfromwhich the threads f f pass, as represented by red lines in the drawings,through the harnessb b and reed g of the shuttle-frame to the clothbeamh, upon which they are wound as fast a interwoven with the Woof-threads.

In order to overcome the slack in the warpthreads, caused by their beingraised and lowered in the harness b b, the said threads are passed fromtheir feed-roller d around a roller, t', of a swinging frame, j, turningupon a center at k of the frame-work c a. Bearing upon the insidesurface of the said frame j are springs l l, the recoil and force ofwhich serve to always keep a uniform tension uponthe said threads duringthe whole operation of weaving, as is apparent without furtherdescription. These springs l Z,it is evident, may be made adjustable,and thereby any desired tension upon the warp-threads can be not onlyobtained but always maintained, as described.

m m are the rubber threads, (represented by blue lines in the drawings,)and u n the feedroller of the same.

In the weaving of elastic fabrics-that is, those fabrics containing bothrubber and cotton or other fibrous threads-it is necessary, in order togive the desired elasticity to thecloth, that the rubber threads shouldbe continually held while being interwoven with the weft at a certainand uniform tension. To produce this tension in a uniform manner uponall the threads much difficulty has heretofore been experienced, owingto various causes, the principal one of which was that the holding ornipping devices used have not been such as could adjust themselves tothe varying thicknesses of the threads, which variations, as is evident,although ever so slight, still would serve to prevent the accomplishmentof the desired result.

It may be observed here that the difficulty of maintaining a uniformtension upon rubber threads by the ordinary methods is much greater thanin inelastic ones, as Vthe extreme sensitiveness of rubber threadsrenders them liable to be unequally stretched, whenever any disturbingcause occurs-for instance,such as the accumulation of dust between thefeeding and holding rollers, in want of parallelism in their peripheriesoccasioned by wear, Src. In my improvements, however, this difficulty isentirely obviated, and the rubber threads are held at a uniform tension,throughout the Waele time occupied in weaving, by means of the followingarrangement of nippers an d holding devices, viz:

o is a rubber or elastic roller, and p p an inelastic roller. Betweenthese twoA rollers o and p the rubber threads, before passing to theharness and cloth beam of the loom, are passed, and thesaid rollers arethen so adjusted with regard to each, by means of setorews or otherwise,as to cause a continual pinching or biting of the said threads as theyare fed along by the revolution of the roller p, by any proper devices,to the shuttles of the loom, and thus produce the desired tension uponthe said threads.

By the use of the elastic or rubber roller o, in connection with themetallic or inelastic roller p, it will be seen that the elastic threadswhile passing between the two will be embedded, as it were, to a greateror lesserdegree in the rubber, thereby securingthe equal holding ofthethreads at all times, notwithstanding any variations, however` slight,in their thicknesses, or any other disturbing cause that may occurbetween the two rollers o and p.

qq are the shuttles, placed in ways or'grooves q q' of an ordinarysl1uttle-frame,c, this frame o being swung back and forth upon its shaftby the usual devices employed in looms. In one side ot each shuttle g arack-bar, s, is placed, engaging the toothed pinions t t, Src., oftheshuttle-frame r. With these pinions t t, Sto., sliding rack-bar u a ofthe frame 0 engages, the said bars being placed parallel, andrespectively in the upper and loweredges, and connected together bycords a, passing over pulleys y y in each corner of the lsaid frame.Attached to the lower rack-bar, u', upon the under side thereof, andmoving in a groove, ir, ot the frame, is a projeetiomz. In the groove zcof the said projection z' a stud or pin, a', in the upper end ot' avertical lever, bf, is placed. the said lever turning upon a fulcrum,o', in the lower porxion of the shuttlei'rame. To the lower end of thelever b one end of straps or cords d d is attached. The

opposite ends thereof, passing under guiderollers e e of the frame-workaa, are attached to the outer ends of two horizontal levers, f f',turning on fulcrums at g g of the framework a a. These levers ff,between their fulcrums and their outer ends, respectively, bear andtravel upon the edge or periphery of twocam-wheels, h h', attached toand so arranged with regard to each other upon the drawing-shaft K ofthe looln that by the revolution thereof thetwo levers f f will be madeto'rise or lower, turning upon their fulcrums at the proper times, andthereby, through the arrangemt nt of the connecting devices abovedescribed, cause the shuttle q q, at the proper time, to be moved backand forth across theV warp-threads of the loom. l

It will be seen by inspection of the drawings and by the descriptionabove ot' the arrangement of the pinions t t, rack-bars u u in thesliuttleframe, that the shuttles in the two parallel horizontal groovesqg thereof, when made to move back and forth in their frame, asdescribed, travel in opposite directions to each other.

What I claim as my invent-ion, and desire to have secured tome byLetters Patent, is-

1. The swinging frame j, arranged and operating substantially ashereinabove described, and for the purpose of taking up the slack in thewarp-threads.

2. The elastic and non-elastic nipping and feeding-rollers, operatingtogether and upon the elastic threads passing between them,substantially as hereinabove described.

3. The peculiar arrangement of devices herein described, for operatin gthe shuttles ofthe loom, the same consisting of the rack-bars u u',pinions t t, &c., and vertical lever, b,connect ed with and receivingmotion from the drivingshaft of the loom, substantially as set forth.

O. C. SMITH. Witnesses:

JosEPi-I GAvErT, AIBERT W.v BROWN.

